


Quiet

by orphan_account



Category: escape the night - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 13:09:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16018586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The horror usually isn’t what kills you, it’s the quiet moments in between.





	Quiet

**Author's Note:**

> i really hope you guys like this one! inspiration taken from CinderScoria (and her stories are way better than mine, so you should go check them out).

Everything is quiet.

 

Matthew can feel a trickle of blood running down his temple. 

His cheek is against the ground, and he can smell smoke.

He remembers... what does he remember? 

An explosion.

Shouts.

Trying to find Ro before everything was dark.

He's only clueless for a second, and then everything comes crashing back in around him. His eyes fly open, and he coughs, but he can't hear it.

He can't hear anything. Only a faint ringing pervades the silence.

Matthew stumbles to his feet, and tries to take in the scene in front of him. The town is dark, zombies slumped over along the road.

But he still smells smoke, and he's starting to sweat from the heat. So he turns around, and his body tenses with horror.

The church is burning.

Fire tears at the walls, like claws through paper. Ash floats down, and smoke as thick as water is pouring out into the sky, settling on the ground around him and stealing the breath from his lungs.

Where are Joey and Ro?

He knows what the answer has to be. He's not stupid. But he wants so badly to be wrong.

A bloody conflict wages in his brain.

Run or stay, hide or face head-on, live with guilt or die with regret.

Matthew's left ear is slowly starting to regain some sound. He can hear the roar of the fire now, faintly, and the groaning of the church's foundation.

He can hear screaming, too.

It's them.

So he doesn't think. He doesn't plan. He doesn't wait.

He sprints forward, into the flames.

***

Matthew presses his jacket over his nose and mouth, waving his arm in front of him in a futile attempt to clear the smoke.

He tilts his head, trying to hear with his good ear.

"RO!" he yells, into the inferno, even though he can barely hear himself. "JOEY!"

"M-Matt? Is that you?" 

Joey. Hoarse, weak, but there.

Matthew runs toward the voice, throwing aside burning debris, adrenaline numbing the pain.

Joey is crouched under a table, eyes watering from the smoke. 

Matthew grabs his arm and pulls him up to his feet, and together they run for the door.

He gets Joey outside, then faces the church again, the flames reflected in his eyes.

"Where's Ro?" Matthew asks, and Joey shakes his head, the tiny action causing him pain. He doesn't know. Bile rises in his throat, and he pukes in the grass, smoke still clogging his insides.

Matthew leaves him, and runs into the church again. He can feel panic scrabbling around in his stomach, his heart pounding.

This church is small. There's only a handful of places she could be. She would be smart. She'd stay in a safe place.

Or she's dead.

Matthew pushes the thought out of his mind. No, no, no, he can't think like that. 

The first two rooms he checks are empty, branch-offs of the church that are now filled with soot and flames.

The third he almost skips over, but as he moves past it, he hears something.

Quickly, he runs in, and there she is.

Ro is slumped on the floor, her chest just barely rising and falling.

She's alive.

He shakes Ro, trying to wake her up. The fire's getting stronger all around them, and Matthew knows that neither of them can survive here for long.

Her eyes open, and they're cloudy with smoke and fear. A huge burn, second-degree at least, is blistering on her arm. She struggles to focus on him, trying to figure out if he's her friend or her enemy.

"Matt?" she mumbles.

"Ro, it's me. I'm here, okay? We've got to get you out of the church," Matthew says, trying to get her up.

Now that he's closer, he can hear shallow, quick breaths rattling in her lungs, and he can see shards of glass embedded in her skin.

Matthew lifts her off the ground and runs out of the room with his dying best friend limp in his arms. 

Getoutgetoutgetout. His brain is skipping like a record player, over and over and over. He can only hear the fire and his heartbeat, and Ro's whimpers.

He runs towards the way he came in, but a beam cracks from the ceiling and collapses to the floor with a huge crash even Matthew can hear.

Panic stops his brain for a quick second, but then he sees the windows.

Setting Ro on the ground gently, he curls his hand into a fist and punches the stained glass. 

His hand crumples after the glass shatters, and it hurts like hell, but they need to get out of here.

Matthew turns around to get Ro, but she's not there.

The carnival master's there instead, Ro's body over his shoulder.

"NO!" Matthew screams. "No, please!"

"What a strong bond," the carnival master purrs. "The stress usually cracks people by now."

"Give her back," Matthew growls, his voice low and threatening.

"All right," the carnival master says, a smile carving into his features, and he flicks his wrist.

Ro falls to the ground, and Matthew grabs her quickly and pulls her out the window with him.

Then he's running, feet against the ground, as far away from the church as he can get. It was too easy. He knows it was too easy. The carnival master has to be planning something, and that terrifies him.

He looks over his shoulder at the church, expecting to see the demon bearing down on the trio with hatred in his eyes.

 

But the carnival master's not following them.

And that, somehow, makes Matthew feel worse.

***

Ro wakes up gasping for air, ready to run.

But she's laying on a couch in the lounge. Alone. Matthew and Joey are nowhere to be found.

She vaguely remembers smoke burning in her lungs, fire with so much heat it slightly melted her shoes.

She remembers Matthew saving her, and seeing Joey just before she'd completely passed out.

So where are they?

Ro's starting to get scared now. 

"Guys?" she calls out, and it echoes back to her.

A gust of wind blows through the lounge, and it carries with it the smell of smoke and flakes of ash.

It gets hotter, and Ro stands up in a panic. 

The room's on fire, and it's closing in on her. 

 

She screams, trying to escape, but there's nowhere to go, she's trapped, she's alone, she's alone, she's alone-

Her eyes open slowly, and she wakes up.

Matthew and Joey are there. Joey's staring at the map, and Matthew's next to her.

"Hey, sleepyhead," he says, trying to appear lighthearted, but it doesn't work. She can still see the bags under his eyes, can still hear the worry in his tone.

She winces. It hurts to move.

"Do you want some water?" Matthew asks softly, holding out a glass, and when she nods, he hands it to her.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Not very long. Only half an hour," Matthew says.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" she accuses him. "I don't want to slow us down! We need to get out of here!"

"Both of us had to rest too, Ro. You didn't slow us down, I promise."

"Are you hurt?" she asks, concern in her tone.

He smiles ruefully. "Just a little bit. Nothing serious."

Ro lays back down on the couch, because she's feeling woozy. She's cold, so she reaches into her pockets, but her fingers brush against something coldly metallic.

It's a pocket watch. She brings it into the light, and an intricate design of flowers and leaves glimmers on the back.

"What's that?" Matthew asks, turning away from Joey.

"Just a pocket watch," she says, handing it to him.

"Huh. Where did you get it?" Matthew's turning it over in his hands, examining the outside.

"I don't know, actually."

"Careful, you could have a curse or something in there," he laughs, halfway joking.

Rosanna laughs nervously with him and puts it back in her pocket.

It's quiet then. Joey's picking at a scab on his knee.

"You know what I miss?" he says out of nowhere.

Matthew and Ro look over at him.

"I miss my bed. I mean, obviously I miss my boyfriend, and my family, but I miss my bed."

Matthew smiles at him in a way that hopefully shows he gets it. It's weird, the things you miss in life-or-death situations. There are the obvious ones, like family and friends, and then there are the strange things, like obscure foods or toothbrushes or Ziploc bags. You miss the things that make your life normal.

"I miss Cookie," Ro says, her voice still rough and raspy from all the smoke. "And smoothies. And my shower." She turns to Matthew. "What about you, Matt? What do you miss?"

"Stephanie," he says automatically. There hasn't been an hour that goes by that he doesn't think of her. And by extension, his son. 

He feels himself being drawn into the quagmire of memory, and he can't go there because there's no chance he'll ever get out. So he tucks thoughts of Stephanie and his future child away, carefully so he can think about them later. 

Everyone's silent again, but for different reasons this time.

"I'm going to go outside," Ro says.

Matthew gets up too, fear and protectiveness flashing in his eyes.

"Matthew, I'll be okay," she tells him. "I'll come back inside if I feel dizzy."

He looks reluctant, but then goes and sits back down, running his fingers through his sooty hair.

Outside, it's cold. Freezing, almost. It's supposed to be October in the town, but it feels like the middle of winter.

Ro's glad for her coat. She pulls her hands inside the sleeves, and looks up at the dark sky.

The sunrise is close. In an hour or so, they'll have escaped, or they'll be dead.

It's hard to accept either of those things.

She doesn't want to die. But adjusting back to her old life will be almost impossible. 

Ro watches the clouds up above. It looks like it might rain later. It's so cold, it might even snow.

The church is still burning. Even watching it, even this far away, she can smell the thick smoke, can feel the overwhelming heat all around her.

Before the panic can completely settle in her chest, though, she hears Matt call her name.

When she walks in, the two of them are holding a record player.

"What on earth?" Ro asks, giggling. It feels so good to laugh.

"We found this in the cabinet!" Joey explains excitedly.

"There were some old records in there, too," Matthew adds, holding up the dusty albums.

"Do you think it'll work?"

Joey pulls a record out of its sleeve and places it under the needle, and a staticky guitar intro starts echoing through the lounge.

"The Rolling Stones, huh?" Matthew says, smiling and crossing his arms over his chest as "You Can't Always Get What You Want" crackles out of the record player.

"What can I say, I'm a fan," Joey replies, starting to mouth along with the words.

"I love this song!" Ro gasps, clapping excitedly.

Matthew leans against the wall. Normally, he would be just as excited, dancing and belting out the lyrics. He knows this song, too.

But he can still feel the smoke in the back of his throat, and more importantly, the fear residing just behind his ribcage.

He could have lost Ro and Joey in the span of minutes. 

This time, they were lucky, but what will happen when their luck runs out?

He needs something to do, so he walks around, checking the locks.

Rosanna approaches him, recognizing the look on his face. "What are you worried about?"

"Nothing," Matthew responds, smiling. Hopefully, she doesn't see that it's fake.

But she does. She always does, and she tilts her head up at him with the same worry plain in her eyes.

"Come on, tell me," she says, nudging him gently with her shoulder.

"There's nothing to tell." 

It comes out angrier than he means it to, but Ro doesn't even flinch. She just grabs his hand and tugs him away from the wall, by where the record player is sitting on the table.

She starts dancing.

At first, it's kind of an ungainly flailing, but she finds her way into the rhythm eventually. She's grinning, and her eyes are bright.

Joey joins her, with a little more elegance in his style but with slightly less feeling.

There's a burst of static, and then the next song starts. "Sympathy For The Devil."

Joey's eyes light up, and he plays air guitar along with the riffs at the beginning of the song.

Matthew rolls his eyes, but he's fighting back a grin, especially as Ro starts doing a simple tap dance he remembers from his days in musical theatre. Surprisingly, it matches up with the song pretty well.

And before he knows it, he's dancing too.

***

 

Ro's happy that Matt seems to have let go of his worry, at least for a moment.

She certainly hasn't, but she can cover anything up with a giggle and a smile.

Rosanna just feels like they should be doing something. Sitting here like this is nice, but what are they going to do if something goes wrong?

She starts to get lightheaded after about the fifth song, so she sits down, but Matt and Joey keep dancing. Matt gives her a concerned look, but she waves it away. She wants him to have fun.

It's been almost forty-five minutes since something has tried to kill them.

New record, Ro thinks to herself, smiling at her own little joke.

It's quiet, and everyone's happy, and she feels the closest to safe for the first time since the clowns walked in with their knives this evening.

 

She pulls the pocket watch out from her coat. It's strange, because she doesn't remember having it before the fire.

 

Where did it come from?

Rosanna clicks open the watch. She almost expects a paranormal spirit to erupt from inside, but that doesn't happen.

It's just a watch.

There's a picture inside, of a family: a mother, a father, and a little girl.

Ro wonders what happened to them. She stands up, to show Joey and Matthew what she'd found, but they're just standing there.

She realizes that the music's stopped. How long has it been stopped?

Matthew and Joey are frozen where they stand, not even blinking.

"What's going on?" Ro asks quietly, but even her soft whisper is deafening in the absolute silence. She can hear her blood rushing through her veins.

Choose.

She knows it's the carnival master right away. That voice will haunt her forever.

Choose someone to kill.

Her breath catches, and the thoughts are all too much, too fast, too loud, so she runs outside, not sure where she's going. She has to get out.

She was right; it did start snowing.

Snowflakes are paused in midflight, and there's a definite chill in the air.

You can't hide from me.

You have to choose.

The voice is so loud. It thrums against the inside of her skull, makes her head hurt.

"Please don't make me," she pleads. "They're my best friends."

Ro's crying now, the weight of everything terrible falling in on her.

Choose.

"I can't!" she screams. 

 

You don't have a choice. Choose someone to die.

Ro shook her head, trying to get rid of the carnival master's demonic voice.

Choose.

She couldn't.

Choose.

She wouldn't.

Choose.

She wanted them both to live.

Choose.

"Wait," she whispered, out loud. "Me."

Choose.

"I choose me," she said, deathly quiet. "I choose myself."

The voice goes silent, and time resumes around her.

Nothing happens.

Matthew and Joey, in a panic, sprint out of the lounge, looking for her. Matthew sees her first, and his face relaxes with relief.

"There you are! We were dancing, and then you were just... gone," Matthew says, his hands still shaking with leftover worry and cold.

"Why are you out here? It's freezing!" Joey exclaims, rubbing his hands together. "We should get you inside."

Ro takes the hand that Matthew offers, but she's just waiting for something terrible to happen.

When you know you're going to die, you feel like you have to take every last thing in and put it away for safekeeping. 

 

Like Joey's raised eyebrow when Matt makes a pun about all the snow ("getting out of here should be 'snow' problem"), or Matt's soft, relieved smile whenever he sees that she's back and she's okay, or the smell of night, or the way the cold wind feels against her skin, or a thousand other things.

She wants to cry, to tell them she's sorry, to just curl up in a ball and wait for the death that was promised to come.

 

But she gets to the lounge, and she thinks that maybe she outsmarted the carnival master. Maybe no one will die.

She knows better, but it's nice to pretend.

***

Ro's acting weird.

Matthew can see it in the careful way she contributes to the conversation, not at all like the bubbly, free-flowing way she normally talks.

"Are you okay?" he asks, for what must be the seventh time since they found her.

And for the seventh time, she gives him a quick nod in response.

"You're lying," he says gently, pushing her head up so she's forced to make eye contact with him. "What's going on?"

She doesn't want to answer.

She wants to stay here, like this, safe and warm and alive, forever.

But of course that can't happen.

"I'm going to die," she states, and it's too simple of a phrase to carry the weight it contains.

"No, you're not," Matthew replies, a ghost of a laugh escaping him. "You're safe. All the artifacts are cleansed."

Ro shakes her head, just barely.

Joey walks over, three beers in hand. He'd stopped at Fat Man Slims. He thought they could all probably use a drink.

But when he hears what they're talking about, the bottles crash to the floor, soaking the carpet in amber liquid.

"You can't die," he says, making it a command. "You can't."

"I have to," she replies simply.

Matthew envelops her in a hug. He hugs her because after tonight, he won't be able to anymore. He hugs her because she's his best friend. He hugs her because she's about to leave him for good.

Joey does too, tears falling silently down his face. She was always there for him. But she's not going to be anymore.

And he doesn't know if he can handle it.

"What are we going to do?" Matthew asks. It's rhetorical, because he knows nobody has a clue.

“Can we go outside?" Ro says quietly.

"Yes, yeah, of course," Joey replies.

The three of them make their way to the street, where Ro had been standing just ten minutes before.

The sun's coming up from behind the clouds, and the sky is filled with pink-gold light.

 

"I'm going to miss you so much, Ro," Matthew whispers, and she looks up and smiles at him.

"I'll be okay," she says. "I promise."

"I can't promise I'll be okay," Matthew responds, smiling, but he can barely see Ro through his tears.

"I just want you to be happy. Without me. You have to give me that, all right?"

He nods, because he'd give her anything right now, but this is the hardest thing she could ask him to do.

Rosanna squeezes his hand fiercely, reminding him of her disguised strength, and then too soon, she's gone, hugging Joey on tiptoe, saying something in his ear.

As if on cue, her knees buckle when she's done hugging Joey, and she collapses to the ground.

Even though he knows it's coming, it doesn't stop Matthew from feeling like his soul is being torn in half.

She's writhing on the ground, and she's screaming, and both Matthew and Joey are crying because there's nothing they can do about it.

Ro's in so much pain. It feels like a million things are exploding in her brain, like her mind is being cleaved in two by a searing hurt that won't subside. Blood is leaking from her mouth, her nose, her eyes, everywhere, soaking her face.

Matthew’s trying to calm her down, trying to staunch the blood.

It keeps going, and going, and going, but then it's over, her body unable to take any more.

Her vision is fuzzy around the edges, and her breathing gets raspy.

She remembers... what does she remember?

Laughing with her sister.

Chasing after her dog in the mornings.

When Matthew appeared in the doorway, and she felt something in her heart come back to life.

The last thing she sees is the sun.

Matthew watches the light leave his best friend’s eyes. She’s gone, and he knows she is, but that doesn’t stop him from checking for a pulse.

There’s nothing.

Everything is quiet.

**Author's Note:**

> yeeeeeeeeeeah, ro died again. I’M SORRY! i promise i don’t intend for it to end that way most of the time.


End file.
